{Kabul denies Islamabad’s claim that its forces killed 50 Afghan soldiers as tensions deepen over border fighting.}<\/p>\n
Pakistan’s military said its forces killed more than 50 Afghan soldiers and destroyed five checkpoints in heavy fighting along their disputed border, a claim quickly rejected by Kabul.<\/p>\n
The clashes took place on Friday at the Chaman border that divides Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province and Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar, as Pakistani officials were carrying out a census count. <\/p>\n
At least eight civilians were killed, according to previously stated death tolls by officials – seven on the Pakistani side and one Afghan. <\/p>\n
On Sunday, Pakistan elevated its rhetoric by saying Afghan forces had suffered much more dramatic losses.<\/p>\n
“We are not pleased to tell you that five Afghan check posts were completely destroyed – more than 50 of their soldiers were killed and above 100 were wounded,” Major-General Nadim Ahmad, head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said.<\/p>\n
“We are not happy for their losses, but we were forced to retaliate.”<\/p>\n
Ahmad said two Pakistani soldiers were killed and nine more wounded in the incident.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan quickly denied the statement.<\/p>\n
“Very false claims by Pakistani Frontier Corp that as many as 50 Afghan soldiers lost their lives in Pak retaliation; totally rejected,” Sediq Sediqqi, a government spokesman, said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera’s Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said Afghan officials called Pakistan’s claims “totally false”.<\/p>\n
“Afghan security official at the border confirmed to us at least four policemen killed, and that one woman, a civilian, was killed as a result of artillery attack by Pakistani forces,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said Afghan officials also denied the claim that Pakistani civilians were killed.<\/p>\n
The clashes prompted thousands of families to flee the area, he said. <\/p>\n
“Residents are worried that fighting could start any minute because security forces remain in the area. That’s why they are leaving.”<\/p>\n
According to Pakistan, the fighting began when Afghan troops fired on Pakistani census workers.<\/p>\n
They said the Afghan government had been notified and given the coordinates of the border villages, where the census workers were going door to door.<\/p>\n
Afghan officials, however, said Pakistani troops fired the first shots.<\/p>\n
They blamed Pakistani census enumerators, who were accompanied by soldiers, for straying across the border, a charge Islamabad denied.<\/p>\n
The so-called Durand Line, a 2,400km frontier drawn by the British in 1896 and disputed by Afghanistan, has witnessed increased tension since Pakistan began patrolling along it last year.<\/p>\n
The border has remained closed since Friday, with senior Pakistan army general Amir Riaz telling reporters it would remain so “until Afghanistan changes its behaviour”.<\/p>\n
It is not the only area of dispute between the neighbours: They accuse each other or harbouring armed groups who carry out attacks across their borders.<\/p>\n
Pakistan embarked on the enormous task of conducting its first census in almost two decades in March.<\/p>\n
Pakistan is the sixth most populous in the world with an estimated 200 million people, but has not held a census since 1998, despite a constitutional requirement for one every decade.<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Kabul denies Islamabad’s claim that its forces killed 50 Afghan soldiers as tensions deepen over border fighting.} Pakistan’s military said its forces killed more than 50 Afghan soldiers and destroyed five checkpoints in heavy fighting along their disputed border, a claim quickly rejected by Kabul. The clashes took place on Friday at the Chaman border […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-34425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34425"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=34425"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=34425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}